XIII

On June 12, 1665 in the standard calendar, the southwest trade wind level 4

After an initial engagement, the anti-privateer "Emperor Cleon" and the "Quasi-Angel" of the St. Sen Navy returned to the state of "throwing rocks at each other". At this time, it had been 30 minutes since the first exchange of fire between the two sides. In the previous battle, the second ship of the Intern privateer, the Black Trojan, had been turned into driftwood at sea, and its captain, Mark Blackbeard, was killed by friendly fire.

The loss of the second ship, but the great pirate Kezmi Stihaus, who ranked eighth in the open sea bounty, was not sad.

At the cost of the second ship, he had already earned half the propulsion of the enemy ship, a third of the gun doors, and a quarter of the crew.

Although the elven galleon still held the upper hand, it now has no advantage to hold the upper hand. It tried hard to change the side of the shelling with the left full rudder, but it could not turn around with its current sail.

The pirate captain thought it was worth it, and it wasn't he who sacrificed it anyway.

Now there were only four guns left on the starboard side of the Elven ship that could still shoot - and the quasi-angel had nine more on the port side, and the starboard side was undamaged.

"Is there any other way you can pull the plate?" said Kezmi to himself with a smile on his face, as if victory was already in his hands.

If he knew that the other party no longer had a gun commander, he should smile even brighter.

"Boom!"

The deformed orb of iron swirled, embedded deep into the fir deck of the Emperor Cleon. The place where it fell was only five steps away from a fire barrel.

Two sailors were wounded by it, and one of them was wounded in the abdomen, and his intestines flowed out, and he must have died.

"Sir?" "Captain!" "Your Excellency!"

Remembering that the supreme commander of the ship was nearby, the sailors and sailors panicked.

"Don't make a fuss, I'm fine! Go back to your post and follow my command!" Ferron Lertons shouted, raising his right hand and scattering the smoke in front of him as if nothing had happened. His gaze was still completely focused on the enemy ship in the distance, which was evading.

"Ahh Resa Helmont's voice was haughty with a hint of mockery. "Are you about to lose?"

"Not yet. Admiral Tiebi replied coldly, "Can I ask Madam for a little favor?"

"Fix the sails? I can do it with a simple tinkering. Resa replied.

"No, it's not repairing the sails, it's dismantling the sails. The captain smiled incomprehensibly, "Please remove all the broken sails and ......"

A burst of cannon fire drowned out the words behind the baron of the first rank. The only alchemist who heard the request frowned and turned back to the upper deck.

"The enemy lowered the mainsail and lowered the foresail!"

Hearing such a return, Kezmi was a little strange. Are they going to change the sails? How could this be in time?

He decided to wait and see what would happen, and continue to bombard the enemy ship, which was getting slower.

Clang!

A spear pierced the center of Emperor Cleon's main mast with incredible force.

"Good look!" cheered one of the sailors.

Lesa glanced at them proudly, "Of course, this is the work of the 'Alchemist of Pure Gold'!"

Behind the spear was a long sail rope, the end of which was in the hand of the golden golem.

Resa grabbed the sail line and cast her magic.

"Minor Creation!"

As soon as the spell ended, a large triangular white sail spread out in the wind along the rope. It was a makeshift sail that Lessa's creation had just made.

"Anne, Bonnie, tie that end to the mainmast!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The maidens nimbly grasped the rope hanging from the third corner of the sail and quickly fastened it to the lower end of the mainmast.

It took less than half a minute for a swooper to be erected between the mainmast and the broken rear mast of the "Emperor Cleon".

"Full rudder with the wind, turn in the Z-shape!" "Change the shelling side!" ordered the captain, seizing the moment.

Thanks to the addition of a sirler, Emperor Cleon managed to take the right rudder downwind and create an N-shaped trajectory on the sea, adjusting its orientation from northeast to southeast.

Facing the "quasi-angel" due east, it was no longer the scarred starboard side, but the port side.

"Elevation angle 14 degrees...... No, 15 degrees, all fire!" the Admiral waved his hand heavily.

The gunners and sailors skillfully adjusted the parameters of the artillery, and the casualties of their colleagues around them could not shake their skill and will.

All the guns on the port side spat out angry iron balls almost simultaneously, and a moment later the four remaining movable light guns on the upper deck also opened fire.

"This ...... How is this possible! Hang up the squirrel so quickly, and adjust the direction of the ...... with the wind."

Before Kezmi could exclaim and sigh, the situation took a sharp turn.

"Bunnies, be on time, be on time! You're all long guns, you can't even win that kind of broken ship!"

One round, two rounds. After two more rounds of shelling, Kezmi's smile had completely turned into rage.

"No, no, boss! The two gun emplacements on the third and seventh on the left were hit, and there was no one to replace them!"

"The fifth on the left is ......!"

"Confirm the result of the cannon position!"

The pirate's knuckles were blue, and he tried to resist the urge to pull his katana from behind. He found that even though the number of guns was almost the same, his gunners had a significantly lower hit rate than their opponents.

"How many more gun emplacements are available on the port side?!"

"Boss, there are only two left!"

"Bastard, bastard, bastard, bastard! Is the other party's gun commander a god?! Drop the sail against the wind and attack with starboard guns! The other side is a full-cross sailboat, and if you lose to them in steering power, your descendants will be disgraced!"

His hand held the second bag, and he trembled. Is it torn or not?

He finally made a decision......

Seeing black smoke coming out of the port side of the enemy ship and hurriedly dropping its sail against the wind, Ferron finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I really miss the days when I was a gun commander......

It was in Dizza in 1571. At that time, he was still a young elf, serving as a gun commander for the first time, fighting to the death against the Empire's pulp warships in the inland sea...... The blood of the soldiers on both sides and the debris of wood left behind by the sinking of the battleship literally changed the color of the sea.

After Diza's disastrous victory, Shengsen finally regained the supremacy of the inland sea, and no longer had to worry about the plundering of human pirates and the invasion of human fleets. That is, since that war, no human fleet has dared to challenge the elves' maritime power, and only dares to use privateers to interfere with the operation of the elven hegemony.

That was also the last glory of the Pulp Sail Battleship. After that, such expensive ships no longer fit the needs and were slowly completely replaced by armed commercial sailing ships.

He still remembered that at that time, a battleship with 10 guns could be considered the capital ship of the fleet. Until now, a ship with 20 guns on board is nothing more than a frigate.

"Times change so fast...... Feron sighed. His title of baron, 1st class, was also obtained at the Battle of Diza. After that, he was gradually promoted to the rank of captain, but the title was never again advanced.

"Boom!" seemed to echo his sigh, and the starboard side of the pirate ship that had just turned was completely hit by the round of shelling, exploding, catching fire, and emitting gray smoke.

Visually, only three columns of water rose from the nearby sea - proving that all the remaining shells had hit the hull of the opposing ship.

"Two ...... No, four...... 7. Seven ...... Eight gun emplacements! Eight gun emplacements confirmed!"

The lookout's report was filled with utter surprise. This Ironclad Admiral's ability as a gunner is even stronger than the previous well-known gunner of the Open Sea Fleet!

"Eight, then they don't have artillery?" Hearing this report, Ferron finally breathed a sigh of relief: he knew that he had won the battle.

"What a disappointing opponent. Give them the final blow!"

"If I were him, run away at once. Seven, eight...... It's obviously a total defeat, so what are you going to do? If you don't run away, it's really too late. ”

Leonard was in the captain's room, reclining boredly on Ferron's leather chair, listening to the report from the watchtower. Now that the location of the command center has shifted, the news that arrives here is always one step late.

"Sir, the priests and gentlemen have arrived. A sailor opened the hatch and led Bishop Belber and Trainee Priest Nope in, both of whom did not look very good.

"Why did you summon us, Your Excellency?" asked the middle-aged bishop, in a serious tone, "I think it would be better for us to help the wounded on deck...... Uh, where's Your Excellency the Baron?"

The half-elf clapped his hands and drove off all the sailors and sailors around him before speaking.

He tried to put on the most serious expression and said, "Since the gun commander was injured, the captain went to the deck to direct the command. ”

"Then let's go and heal the Cannon Commander......" The young apprentice priest turned impulsively to leave, and the half-elf hurriedly stopped him.

"Stop. It may be rude to say this, but for the sake of the future of the Holy Forest, the Holy Empire, and your Duchy of Soma, you must stay here, Your Excellency Bishop, Your Honorable Protector, and Lord Ferdinand......" Leonard thought for a moment, as if to think of how to phrase it. "Or rather, His Royal Highness the future Duke of Soma. ”

The two priests froze.

Belber was stunned for a moment before muttering, "According to the agreement, this news should not be disclosed to anyone on the ship." ”

The half-elf sighed: "Don't worry, Shengsen has not broken his agreement with you. The captain and I only knew about this for the convenience of our mission, and no third person would know about it. ”

"The reason why we stayed here...... Could it be that our whereabouts have been revealed? Is this attack a conspiracy to assassinate the heir of the Principality of Somma?" Bishop Belber asked eagerly, "The inheritance of the Principality of Soma is related to the balance of power of the whole world and the glory of the Orthodox Church, and there must be no mistakes, and we must not take any risks!"

"Wait, wait, there is no evidence that this is a conspiracy yet. Leonard shook his head in relief, "This should just be an ordinary encounter. Due to the tactical strength of our opponents, we are worried that Your Highness will be affected, so we ask you to rest here. ”

Both the bishop and the probationary pastor breathed a sigh of relief to hear this.

"So what's going on now? Is there any danger? It doesn't seem good until we leave the upper deck......

Leonard smiled: "Now that those guys have basically been beaten back by us, there should be no danger." If there are no accidents, we can immediately hear the news that the other side has turned the rudder and fled. Now, they should be much more desperate than we are. ”

A report proving his judgment came in almost at the same time.

"The enemy ship turns its rudder against the wind and retreats!"

"Directions?"

"Southeast! There is no intention of rendezvous with the passenger ship. ”

The half-elf sighed and shook his head, and said, "The eighth pirate in the open sea has also become a lost dog." Captain's countermeasures?"

"No pursuit. ”

"It's a man who is known as an iron wall, and his judgment is really conservative......" Leonard stood up and picked up his rapier from the table. "As you have heard, we have won. I went out to the deck to see what was going on...... Well, Your Excellency, you'd better come along, there will be some wounded. ”

"What about me?" the Pastor Trainee ...... No, it should be said that His Excellency Lord Ferdinand asked.

"Just stay here, it's the least accessible place on the ship to be reached by artillery. Besides, I've just called in the guards to protect you. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, several men of exceptional height entered, each armed with a spear or halberd, and wearing a shining silver breastplate. The pastors were a little surprised to see these people.

"They are ......"

"Before this covert operation, the old duke sent us manpower. They are all the best and most loyal warriors of the Principality of Soma, and they can be fully trusted. Plus my men, is there anything else to worry about here?

Leonard's face was filled with a confident smile of victory. The smile was contagious to the others, and everyone laughed.

Only the half-elf himself knew that the uneasiness in his heart was getting stronger and stronger.

"The other side did not pursue the main ship!"

"As I expected. As the name suggests, the people of Ferron are really conservative people. ”

The smile on Calben Blackrobe's face was equally confident, and he didn't see the slightest disadvantage of the current situation. "The second bag should be torn open. ”

He took out a scepter inlaid with rubies from his bosom, flicked it and a fireball flew out of it, smashed into the bow of the passenger ship, and ignited the bow carved with the angel of the goddess. The angel's beautiful face was shrouded in flames and turned into ashes. He flicked his scepter in the other direction, and the angelic smoke suddenly thickened and blackened.

"You get the fire under control. Snatch all the money and ornaments from these noble lords, ladies and ladies...... Of course, it is still forbidden to take off clothes, and there is no such time now. He smiled and clapped his hands and put away his scepter. "Just get them to shout for help. ”

The pirates who followed him immediately pounced on the gentlemen with fat brains like wolves.

"I wonder where my opponents can follow?"

Leonard hurried to the staircase leading to the lower deck, stopped his steps, and slowly walked up the stairs.

The lower deck was also a mess, but it was better than the upper deck. The holes made by the shells were scattered around the firing ports, and there were blood stains near the few gun emplacements that had been destroyed. The wounded soldiers had already been carried away, and most of the bodies were carried aside to be thrown into the sea after the battle.

"Your Excellency. He straightened his outfit and said to Ferron, who was standing there staring at the shadow of the sails of the enemy ship in the distance. The pirate ship, with only two or three guns left, was rapidly disappearing into the sea.

"Hmm. Captain Kakkawi, what's the matter?" replied Admiral Ironwall, coldly.

"That's right. I think it may be necessary for us to call for reinforcements from the Near Sea Fleet, just in case. Leonard was a little surprised at the calmness with which he made this judgment, "Because there is a possibility that our secret mission has been revealed." ”

Admiral Tiebi turned his head and asked, "I thought you were here to accuse me of being too conservative. But why did you think to call for reinforcements from the Offshore Fleet?"

"A feeling...... The defeat of the other party was too fast, too smooth, and outrageously smooth. It felt like they were deliberately luring us in. ”

Ferron smiled contemptuously: "You mean, in fact, the victory is not because of my command, but because of the enemy's strategy? Do you want to say that these pirates who used the maneuvering technique, did not hesitate to sacrifice the second ship, and killed a third of my guns, were only hiding their strength, so that I was lucky to defeat? Is the captain of your far sea fleet better than me?"

"No, that's not what I meant!" the half-elf hurriedly argued, lamenting the estrangement between the two. "Your command is indeed worthy of your reputation. However, we must not fail in this mission, so we should be more cautious. ”

"What you're saying is speculation. Or have you found evidence of an intelligence leak?" Ferron asked.

"Not yet," Leonard paused in the middle ......of his words, and his gaze shifted overboard, followed by Ferron.

In the distance, on that flat-bottomed sailboat, striking black smoke rose. Black smoke drifted along with the southwest trade winds, slanting slightly towards the land.

The captain picked up the binoculars and looked out over the deck of the passenger ship. "They have people on that passenger ship. Those people were abandoned by their main ship, and they must have been desperate, and they were in the final madness. That's the signal smoke they raised at the bow of the ship. ”

"Is it a last, desperate call for help from their mothership?" or ......," Leonard muttered.

"It is better to believe what you have than not to believe what you don't. Ferron finally made up his mind and beckoned a sailor to deliver the order. "Tell the second mate to prepare the smoke canister. Highest alert level, with red. ”

"Do you agree with my speculation?"

"Actually, I'm thinking, if you're a spy, all coincidences can make sense. Admiral Ironwall frowned, "Your judgment and observation skills are indeed quite strong...... Now I need to use your combat power. Close to a scuffle, are you sure?"

"Before reinforcements arrive, the problem must be solved. The half-elf replied confidently. "The Marines will be assembled in no time!"

"Over to you. Ferron's hand waved heavily in the air, "Thirty degrees to north-east, half a sail!"

Soon, crimson smoke floated into the air, which was the highest-level alert signal of the Elven Navy.

The Elven Nation of the Holy Forest can proudly claim that wherever red smoke is emitted around the entire coastline of the Holy Forest, there will be ships from the Holy Forest to come to the rescue. And only they can do it – for the first fifty years and for the next hundred years.

All the uninjured sea warriors gathered on the deck, and the huge golden figure also stood near the team, looking extremely intimidating. Resa stood beside Ganda, looking down at everyone, and Anne and Bonnie obediently stood behind their master with their heads bowed.

Marine Captain Leonard Kekawi stood by the guardrail, facing the sea, with his back to everyone, his left little finger tapping on the guardrail.

"Report to the commander, the Navy has four detachments with a total of seventy people, and there are twenty-seven casualties, it should be forty-three, but it is forty-three, please instruct!"

"Guys, I'm not going to go into a tirade. The half-elf turned, the expression on his face more serious than ever. "This mission ...... Ten people remained in the fourth detachment. ”

"The tasks this time are as follows: First, to ensure that all pirates on board are eliminated. Second, we should try our best to ensure the safety of ordinary people. Third, make sure to come back alive. This is our first battle on this ship, and I ask you to do your best to defend the honor of the Open Sea Fleet. With that, he swept his gaze across the queue from left to right. Everyone's face was full of high fighting spirit, and about a third of the recruits were facing the battle for the first time.

How many of them are able to complete the third task?

Most of them should be able to come back if they were just a dozen pirates left behind, but if his hunch was right...... This passenger ship is a fast passage to endless hell.

Leonard took a deep breath, placed his left hand on his right chest, and continued his lecture.

"In front of us, there is only the surging sea. Behind us, there is no solid land. We have nowhere to retreat, we have no way to escape! We can only move forward, we can only fight to the end! May the gods bless the saints. ”

"In front of us, there is only the surging sea. Behind us, there is no solid land. We have nowhere to retreat, we have no way to escape. We can only move forward, and we can only fight to the end. May the gods bless the Holy Forest. ”

Everyone's left hand was placed on their chest, repeating the oath of the Saint Forest Marine Corps in a low voice. This quote comes from the words of Admiral Churchillas, commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet of St. Sen, before the decisive battle with the Holy Empire's Royal Fleet at the Battle of Diza in 1571.

"It's overboard!" shouted the lookout.

"Emperor Cleon" slammed into the rear side of "Dino", and both boats shook a little.

"Put down the springboard!

Planks with hooks were lowered from the bow of the boat to create a connecting path. The warriors of the sea shouted over the gangplank and rushed to the main deck of the passenger ship.

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